Superman Returns: Review By Flrep07

Throughout time, I have always admired many superheroes and their history. Superman was especially one of them, for the fact that he was basically the first superhero ever made. I grew up watching the Superman movies with Christopher Reeves, but only watched the first one and second one. They were a classic, and great movies for their time. The other movies (Superman 3, and Superman 4: Quest for Peace) I heard were overall a major disappointment.

I guess Batman Forever and Batman and Robin were not the only ones. But never the less I wanted to see this new movie.

The first thing that popped into my head about this movie that of course it was going to be a cinematic disaster, with a terrible cast, poor script, low grade story and just a hollywood mess. Part of that was true. The film was much more than what I expected, it was for what it needed to repair with all the Superman fans and the tragedy of the two previous films before it.

Plot: For five years, the son of Krypton (played by Brandon Routh) was searching in the galaxy for his lost planet of Krypton, which some scientists believed that it may well still have existed parts of it. After Superman came back to Earth from his voyage, it seems the world moved on without him. His love interest Lois Lane (Kate Bosworth) one a pulizter prizer for her article "Why the world doesnt need Superman" and has a little boy named Jason.

She is currently engaged with the boss of The Daily Planet's nephew, Richard White (James Marsden). Meanwhile, Lex Luthor and his minions are up to no good stealing crystals from the Fortress of Solitude and eventually scheming a plan to create a whole new continent and sell the land to people to become rich. When all of these things are going through Superman's head, he finds its a struggle to maintain everything in place, and will try to overcome the corrupt and save the ones he loves.

Acting/Cast:

In general, the cast was superb. Brandon Routh playing Clark Kent/Superman was one of the best performances any newcomer could give, and his impersonation resembled much that of the late and magnificent Christopher Reeves. Kevin Spacey portraying Lex Luthor was another genuine casting because Spacey resembles the previous acting of Gene Hackman. The facial expressions, and some of the dry humor made the film seem like just like the old ones that everyone fell in love with. What I did not like in particular was the poor and painful effort of Kate Bosworth as Lois Lane.

To me, she did not look the part, did not portray the part like the previous Lois from the older movies (Margot Kidder), and finally the characteristics of the bold and strong and unafraid Lois Lane were not presented in any matter. The connection between Superman and Lois was rather decent, but nothing magical. The additional cast members did a professional performance and rather helped the film.

Visuals/Directing/Plot:

For this section of the review, let me start off by saying that i did not like the story. The film was good, but the fact is that it was very dull. Having Lex Luthor being the villain was one of the problems because he did not do much, except have his lackeys beat up Superman. Then of course he stabbed him with a sharp piece of Kryptonite. But besides all that, the actual "scheme" he had was rather ridiculous, and frankly Lex is not portrayed as a ruthless conflicted villain unlike Michael Rosenbaum's portrayal in the hit tv series Smallville.

The fact that they also included *spoiler* a son that is of Supermans makes the audience at the end of the film disappointed scratching their heads. If they want to continue this franchise using these movies, then it would be a massive obstacle trying to fit a little super boy into the picture.

Now, as for the directing, Bryan Singer is a young and talented director. No doubt he has potential but I actually prefer Mark Steven Johnson's directing than Singers. It is because Bryan Singer directs film like X-men and X2: X-men united and now this one that makes me question his ability.

Those films are not terrible, but then again they were not perfect. What was wrong with Superman Return's directing was the whole atmosphere of it, the way day scenes looked dark or gloomy. I myself did not like that. But of course most scenes were amazing, and very enjoyable.

The visuals of "Returns" were great. The airplane scene, the huge slab of land going into space scene, there were really visually captive sections that were jaw-dropping. Infact, the visuals were so beyond great that the movie itself was nominated for an Academy because of its special effects.

In all, the movie lacked a few things, had noticeable flaws and had an average plot. But either way "Returns" will most likely be remembered as a classic, the new Superman movie that helped bring back things from the classic Christopher Reeves's films into the 21st century.

Overall Score: 7.9/10